


Embrace

by evilwriter37



Series: Febuwhump 2021 [7]
Category: DreamWorks Dragons (Cartoon), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Whump, Gen, Hurt Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Whump, hiccup!whump, stoick!whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 03:46:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29093697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evilwriter37/pseuds/evilwriter37
Summary: Hiccup is shying away from Stoick’s touches, and Stoick wants to know why.
Series: Febuwhump 2021 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2134545
Comments: 17
Kudos: 46





	Embrace

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

Hiccup flinched away from the hand that had been laid on his shoulder. Stoick just gave him an odd look, didn’t say anything for a moment. Hiccup had returned from Dragon’s Edge and had gone to see Stoick, but now wasn’t accepting touch from him. That was odd.

“Hiccup… are you okay?” Stoick asked tentatively.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Hiccup rubbed at his shoulder. “I’m just a little sore is all.”

Stoick nodded, accepting that answer. Hiccup was in a lot of battles over at Dragon’s Edge. It made sense. 

“Should you go see Gothi, do you think?” he asked.

“Nah, it’s just a bruise.” Hiccup gave him a charming smile. “So, what’s been going on?” 

  
  


The next day, Stoick tried to give Hiccup a hug, (and he was going to be gentle about it!), but Hiccup shied away from him. Stoick tilted his head at him, furrowed his brow. 

“Hiccup, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, nothing.” Hiccup shook his head. He swallowed. Stoick saw tears in his eyes.

Stoick wanted to touch Hiccup, to carefully take him by the shoulders, but he knew that would trigger something in him. What it was, he wasn’t sure. 

“Hiccup, sit with me.”

Hiccup looked like he wanted to protest, but mutely nodded. The two sat across from each other at the table.

“Now tell me what’s wrong. You can be honest with me.”

Hiccup shook his head. “Dad, I can’t. I-I can’t.” Toothless came over, gave Hiccup a nudge with his snout, and Hiccup pet him on the nose. So, he just wasn’t accepting human touch. There was something to this. Something had happened to him. 

“I promise I’ve heard it all before,” Stoick said. He felt bad saying that, but it was true. As the chief, he’d heard of horrific crimes against people. 

Hiccup looked up at Stoick, tears dripping down his face. “Dad… the reason I don’t want you to touch me…” He choked on a sob. “It’s because  _ he  _ touched me.”

Stoick leaned forward, anger in his blood. “ _ Who? _ ” Did Hiccup really mean what Stoick thought he did? Gods,  _ that  _ couldn’t have happened to him, could it? No, no. It was unthinkable. 

“V-Viggo. He…” Hiccup looked away from him. “Dad, h-he raped me.”

Stoick had no idea what to say. It felt like his world was dropping out from underneath him. He stupidly got out: “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” How could he have known? How could he have expected that  _ that  _ was the reason that Hiccup wasn’t accepting touch? “I didn’t  _ know _ ,” he repeated. Gods, he felt so horrible for trying to touch Hiccup now, though it had only been out of parental affection. But of course Hiccup would be afraid of that now! After… after Viggo had gone and done  _ that _ . 

“Dad, it’s… it’s okay.” Hiccup still wouldn’t look at him, was looking down at the table instead.

Stoick stood. “No. No, it’s not.” He balled his hands into fists. Hurt radiated from his chest, like he’d been struck there with a hammer, and anger burned hot in his blood. “I’m gonna kill him. I’m gonna kill him for it.”

“Don’t,” Hiccup choked out.

“What?”

“D-don’t kill him.”

Stoick knelt so that he could be eye level with Hiccup while he sat. “Son, he…” It took everything he had to not take him by the shoulders, to not pull him into a hug. Knowing that these things wouldn’t comfort Hiccup hurt him terribly. “He  _ hurt  _ you.”

“I know, but… but are we really to be the judge of if someone lives or dies? Is that our right?”

Stoick breathed out a sigh through his nose. Right. His son was a pacifist, even to a fault, it seemed. 

“Fine.” He put a hand near Hiccup’s, but didn’t touch him. He wanted Hiccup to know that he could come to him if he needed or wanted to. “I won’t kill him.” It hurt to say that. It hurt to know that he couldn’t get revenge for what had happened to Hiccup, and because Hiccup didn’t want him to. Now there were tears in  _ his  _ eyes. “What do you need, Hiccup?”

And Hiccup fell to the floor and into his arms. He embraced him, hard, crying into his shoulder. After a moment of hesitation, Stoick hugged back. It felt good to hug his son, to know that, despite what had happened, he was here with him and safe in his arms. 

“Hiccup, I love you.” It wasn’t something Stoick said often, but it was something that needed to be said in this moment. “I love you so much.”

A sniffle. “I love you too, dad.”

Stoick hugged Hiccup harder, and Hiccup returned in kind.


End file.
